Still 'no prospect' of G20 charges

Thursday 14 October 2010 19:43 BST

There is still 'no realistic prospect' of charges against the police officer who hit Ian Tomlinson at the G20 march in london

There is still "no realistic prospect" of pressing charges against police constable Simon Harwood over the death of Ian Tomlinson, the Director of Public Prosecutions has said after reviewing the decision in light of the suspension of pathologist Dr Freddy Patel.

Pc Harwood was told earlier this year he would not be charged with any offence after he was caught on camera striking the 47-year-old with his baton and pushing him to the ground in the City on April 1 last year during the G20 protests.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, reviewed the decision after Home Office pathologist Dr Patel, who carried out the first post-mortem examination on Mr Tomlinson, was suspended from the medical register over other unrelated cases.

In a letter to Jenny Jones, a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, Mr Starmer said the CPS has reconsidered its decision not to prosecute Pc Harwood for manslaughter in light of the General Medical Council's decision on Dr Patel's fitness to practise and he noted there was a "sharp disagreement" over the cause of death.

While Dr Patel's examination, carried out on April 3 last year, concluded the death was "consistent with natural causes", two further examinations found his death was "the result of internal bleeding caused by the fall, in association with alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver".

But Mr Starmer wrote: "It is important to appreciate that it was not the sharp disagreement alone that caused the CPS to conclude that no prosecution for manslaughter could be brought. There were other fundamental difficulties going beyond the conflict of evidence."

Mr Starmer reiterated that the second and third post-mortems relied on evidence from Dr Patel which was interpreted to mean there were three litres of blood in Mr Tomlinson's stomach, indicating that he died of internal bleeding. But Dr Patel later amended his wording to clarify that there was three litres of fluid found "with" blood.

Mr Starmer said since Dr Patel had discarded the three litres of fluid before an analysis could take place it was "simply impossible now to prove with any degree of certainty what was actually found in Mr Tomlinson's abdomen".

He also noted that none of the pathologists had found the source of the internal bleeding, adding: "With no obvious damage to a major organ and with Dr Patel clarifying his earlier findings, the CPS concluded that it was not possible to prove to the criminal standard (ie beyond reasonable doubt) that the fluid found in the abdomen by Dr Patel was blood... or that there was an internal injury which would have caused significant, fatal blood loss."

Mr Starmer said the CPS considered whether the findings against Dr Patel, who faced disciplinary charges over four previous post-mortems, could alter their original decision, announced in July, not to prosecute. He said the conclusion was that there was still "no realistic prospect of a conviction" because the follow up post-mortems were reliant on Dr Patel's evidence and a jury could not conclude on the evidence that the fall led to internal bleeding from the liver.